The Divine Blueprint For a Counter-Revolution

How America’s modern dispensationalist movement mirrors 1960s counterculture

If you grew up American Protestant, as I did, you probably remember hearing about the Rapture, the End Times, and how Catholics don’t understand “God’s plan.” If you grew up Catholic, on the other hand, you’ve likely wondered what Evangelical Christians meant by these references. And if you’ve been on social media at all lately, you’ve almost certainly seen posts alluding to these doctrines in relation to the current Israel/Palestine conflict. You may be wondering what’s going on here.

Dispensationalism is what’s going on here.

Dispensationalism is the belief that God has created seven different covenants with different groups throughout human history, beginning with the Dispensation of Innocence in the Garden of Eden, and ending with the Millennial Kingdom, in which Jesus Christ will reign on Earth for 1,000 years.

Most American Evangelical Christians would simply call this “Christianity.” Most Christians in other parts of the world would return a look of utter confusion. Your Substack correspondent (who was confused about this for a long time, too) has managed to disentangle most of these threads, and will now do the best he can to explain where dispensationalism comes from, what it teaches, and how it shapes American psychology, policymaking and geopolitics.

Our story begins in 19th-century Ireland, where a priest revolted against his church, and decided to interpret scripture his own way.

Follow me over to Substack, where the story continues: https://theheart.substack.com/p/divine-blueprint-for-a-counter-revolution